The Turning-Point

Published:First published inPravdaNo. 80 June 26 (13), 1917.

      Published according to thePravdatext.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1977,

      Moscow,Volume 25,

      pages82-83.Translated:Transcription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.  

      2002You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

The Turning-Point

Atthe first stage of its development the Russian revolution
      transferred power to the imperialist bourgeoisie, and created,
      alongside of that power, the Soviets of Deputies, with the
      petty-bourgeois democrats in the majority. The second stage of
      the revolution (May 6) formally removed from power the cynically
      frank spokesmen of imperialism, Milyukov and Guchkov, and
      virtually transformed the majority parties in the Soviets into
      governing parties. Our Party remained, before and after May 6, a
      minority opposition. This was inevitable, for we are the party
      of the socialist proletariat, a party holding an
      internationalist position. A socialist proletariat whose outlook
      during an imperialist war is internationalist cannot but be in
      opposition to any power waging that war, regardless of whether
      that power is a monarchy or republic, or is held by defencist
      “socialists”. And the party of the socialist
      proletariat is bound to attract an increasingly large mass of
      people who are being ruined by the protracted war and are
      growing distrustful of “socialists” committed to the
      service of imperialism, in the same way as they previously grew
      distrustful of imperialists themselves.

Thestruggle against our Party, therefore, began in the very
      first days of the revolution. And however infamous and
      abominable the forms of struggle carried on by the Cadets and
      the Plekhanov people against the party of the proletariat, the
      meaning of the struggle is quite clear. It is
      the same struggle as the imperialists and the Scheidemann people
      waged against Liebknecht and Adler (both of whom were, in fact,
      declared “mad” by the central organ of the German“socialists”, to say nothing of the bourgeois press,
      which

      described these comrades simply as “traitors” working
      for Britain). This is a struggle of thewholeof
      bourgeois society,including the petty-bourgeois
      democrats, however r-r-revolutionary they may be, against the
      socialist, internationalist proletariat.

InRussia, this struggle has reached a stage where the
      imperialists are trying, through the petty-bourgeois-democratic
      leaders, the Tseretelis, Chernovs, etc., to destroy the growing
      power of the workers’ party at a single hard and decisive
      blow. As a pretext for this decisive blow, Minister Tsereteli
      has struck upon a method repeatedly used by
      counter-revolutionaries:the charge of conspiracy.This
      charge is a
      mere pretext. The point is that the petty-bourgeois democrats,
      who take their cue from the Russian and the Allied imperialists,
      need to do away with the internationalist socialists once
      and for all. They think that the moment is ripe for the
      blow. They are agitated and frightened, and under the whip of
      their masters they have made up their minds: now or never.

Thesocialist proletariat and our Party must be as cool and
      collected as possible, must show the greatest staunchness and
      vigilance. Let the future
      Cavaignacs[1]begin first. Our Party
      conference has already given warning of their arrival. The
      workers of Petrograd will give them no opportunity to disclaim
      responsibility. They will bide their time, gathering their
      forces and preparing for resistancewhenthose
      gentlemen decide to turn from words to action.

[1]Cavaignac,Louis Eugene—French general who after the February
revolution of 1848 became War Minister of the Provisional
Government. In June 1848 he led the suppression of the Paris workers’
uprising.